Monday, January 20, 2014

School Days Jacket

At a Fabricland sale about a year ago, I spotted pale pink Melton wool and immediately thought about making Oliver + S pattern School Days Jacket.

While I've made this pattern before as a sort of test run, it's taken me a whole year to make it using the fabric I bought on sale.

For the lining I used a product called Kasha. It's a flannel backed satin that quite thick but not too heavy.

Like all Oliver + S patterns it was easy to make because of the detailed instructions and the outcome was professional looking.
Although it would look a little more professional with a touch up on the sleeve with an iron!

Right now it's -20C and I don't think this wool jacket even with the flannel backed lining would be warm enough. When the weather gets warmer and hovers around 0oC, then this jacket will be a welcome change from a down filled snowsuit.

Like the jacket I made before, I used toggle closures.
On the previous jacket I made the cording longer so the front placket sat flat. By doing so, the toggles kept coming undone.
This time around I cut the toggle cords the length called for in the pattern and while the front placket buckles a little bit, they don't come undone.

I finished the sleeve hem differently from the pattern instructions.

On the outside, I turned up the sleeve hem and the lining hem (as it would look when finished) and put in one pin to hold it in place.
Then I put my hand up between the lining and the outside of the jacket and pulled the sleeve through.....

...and with the sleeve inside out and finding the pin, repinned the hem so that right sides were facing each other.

I was able to stitch all the way around the sleeve hem....

....and that gave it a nice finish.

Turning the Oliver + S book 'Little Things To Sew', I made some mittens to go with the jacket.

I added 1 inch to the mitten hem and using scraps of melton wool, made an Inuskuk design on the front.

An Inukshuk is usually made of stones or boulders in the Arctic to point the way for hunters or travellers to keep them from getting lost.

14 comments:

this coat is as lovely on the outside as the inside! I will have to try the sleeve finishing like this next year on Caspian's coat. and those mittens are super cute! Lucky little girl, I sure she'll be beautiful in it. : )

It is gorgeous! I love the pink fabric and the pretty shiny lining. I have never heard of Kasha. But I will try to find some and use it for future coats for my little one. And I realize as I read this that I didn't pay much attention to the length of the cord for the toggle. I have a feeling that I made mine too long. Oops.

It's gorgeous!!! The fabric is beautiful and loving those toggles.I have the pattern but am too lazy because it has many pattern pieces. I start now (end of our summer here in Australia) I would have one done by Winter! Maybe I might do the buttons if the toggles were coming undone.

This is gorgeous! I used that sleeve finishing method on a Farbenmix pattern coat I made last year. The instructions were so confusing on the pattern though, I had to google it until I got my head around it, mine had a ribbed cuff sandwiched in between as well (my head was melting!) You make it look easy!